Wednesday, July 31, 2013

This summer has obviously been a pretty dry spell in terms
of blog posts, but now that I just arrived back in the country a few days ago,
I hope for the pace to pick back up before too long.August may end up a tad scattered, since I will begin the
month with a move to Detroit and a new immersion program.But I also expect this change in locale
to elicit some exciting new topics for contemplation, reinvigorating the
continual learning process.

Keeping up the theme of continuous learning, I offer a
groundbreaking post today.While
it isn’t my first revisit of an old blog topic, this is the first time I’m gone
back to view an old site precisely with the purpose of showing how my
assumptions and conclusions were apparently originally wrong.Late last fall, I covered familiar ground by delving into the Westminster Apartments,

Upon first glance, Westminster was a pretty run-of-the-mill
place: an auto-oriented, low-rise complex dating from around 1970 that
manifested the telltale signs of decline: visibly worn common space, wooden
decks and siding that were sufficiently rotted to compromise the overall
stability, meager landscaping, obvious vandalism of the buildings through
graffiti.

Like many apartment complexes in Indianapolis and across the
nation that date from this time period, what began as middle-class rental
housing had devolved over the years, as newer, more modern buildings opened in
the vicinity, featuring newer appliances and other amenities.The property management team for Westminster
could have maintained the buildings, but, because federal Section 8 benefits
will guarantee them secure tenancy no matter how poor the condition of the
buildings, the owners had no real incentive to improve the structures.After all, even though Section 8 caters
to a clientele with incomes far below middle class standards, the institution
writing the majority of the rent checks—i.e., the government—always pays in
time, meaning that landlords actually get an incentive for letting their
property deteriorate to the point that it only can attract Section 8
tenancy.It appeared last November
that this phenomenon was exactly what had afflicted the Westminster
apartments.It’s happened to
dozens of buildings in the suburban reaches of Indianapolis over the past 20
years, where suburban units that previously attracted young professional
families are now overwhelmingly lower-income.The result is that suburban districts of Indianapolis that
were virtually crime free in the 1980s are now hosting concentrated poverty and
all the concomitant social woes.

But there’s a catch: Westminster is not in the Indianapolis
city limits.This building sits
just south of County Line Road, squarely within the Indianapolis suburb of
Greenwood.And Greenwood remains a
fast-growing, desirable, middle- to upper-middle class suburb, with well
regarded schools, a flourishing mall, an expanding greenway network, and a
growing logistics/trucking industry that capitalizes on the suburb’s strong
access to Interstate 65.By all
metrics, the Westminster should not need
to downgrade; it could remain attractive to middle-class people if only the
property managers had bothered to maintain it.But since they hadn’t, it had suffered the same malaise as
numerous complexes in Indianapolis city limits, where school districts are
often much spottier and crime a persistent concern.What went wrong with Westminster?

Nothing, apparently—I was wrong all this time.It fell under new ownership last
November and promptly underwent a significant renovation.They’ve already rebranded the place
with a new logo.

And it looks like those renovations are substantial—much
more than just a slick new sign at the entrance. Gone is the spraypainted graffiti, the sagging gutters, the
termite-infested wood. Here’s what some of the new ones look like:

Notice the newly planted shrubs, and the sapling in the
second photo.Obviously the
buildings received a facelift, but were the changes more than superficial?A glimpse at some of the buildings
still under renovation would suggest that the process has been comprehensive.

The new owners, Van Rooy Properties, closed off a number of
the buildings, vacating them completely during the renovation process.Notice that the doorways are completely
boarded shut.The renovation team
also hasn’t forgotten about the rights-of-way.

The asphalt appears to be newly resurfaced and striped.But the best evidence that the
Westminster Apartments are enjoying a thorough renovation are the buildings in
which the process has not yet begun—some “before” photos.

Unlandscaped, sagging gutters, peeling paint...they look just awful—worse than anything else I’ve seen on
the south side of Indianapolis.And yes, the unrenovated units still reveal those half-hearted attempts
to hide the graffiti tags.

The juxtaposition of the pre- and post-renovation
Westminster units should provide enough evidence that the buildings were in a
sorry state, but, last November, I had my doubts that they would ever undergo a
complete renovation.The fact that
Van Rooy has taken such an initiative clearly speaks well for the survivability
of Westminster (though, frankly, I’m surprised the owners didn’t alter the name
of the units, as frequently happens when apartment buildings change hands).However, this initiative does
not speak well for the future of equivalent rental properties in Indianapolis
city limits.While I am certain
that at least some of the 1970s-era units in Indianapolis proper have undergone
a renovation, I’m not aware of any in particular on this side of town. But, just south of County Line Road,
these Greenwood apartment units might benefit from enough of a shot in the arm
that they once again attract middle-income tenants.While Westminster may seem like a modest indicator, the fact
remains that the property’s owners determined that its location was
sufficiently desirable to invest in comprehensive uprgrades—an action I don’t
anticipate seeing among Indianapolis apartments on this side of town any time
soon.In fact, the dominant demographic
of the suburban-style apartments in Indy’s Perry Township (just a mile or two
away from the Westminster) are Burmese immigrants, who depend on rock-bottom
leasing rates.

All in all, the Westminster case study suggests that I was
wrong: aging apartments in fast-growing suburbs genuinely are more likely to
benefit from a renovation, while the counterparts in the primary city continue
to languish.Maybe I can explore
this dichotomy again a few years from now, when another apartment complex on each
side of the boundary will inevitably deteriorate to a similar condition as the
Westminster pre-renovation.But at
this point, it appears that the affordable housing policies that ostensibly
discourage apartment owners from renovating buildings in the old central city
of a metro—the portion of the metro typically with the weakest school
districts—don’t have the same impact on their suburban counterparts.But, in another 20 years, the
Westminster Apartments of Greenwood will inevitably need another renovation in
order to remain viable; at that point in the not-so-distant future, shifting
suburban fortunes will determine whether or not the buildings get another face-lift.

About Me

This blog concerns itself with the foundation of American dirt, regardless of where I claim to “live” at that moment. It is the playing field and landscape upon which all living participants tend to their own aspirations, leaving non-indigenous built forms which my aging digital camera hopes to capture.